Kim Jong-un married singer Ri Sol-ju soon after he took power. Little is known about her except that she is in her late twenties and likely to have been chosen as wife of the Korean dictator on the grounds that she resembled the wife of Kim Il-sung, the revered founder of North Korea.

She stepped back from public life on the birth of the couple’s daughter in late 2012.

At 65 Kim Kyong-hu is the only woman generally seen amid the photos of North Korea’s generals and officials.

Daughter of Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s founder, Ms Kim has been one of the most powerful women in the country for 40 years. Along with her husband she was chosen by the late Kim Jong-il before he died in 2011 to help consolidate the authority and image of his son.

The rival – Seo Un-hyang

Seo Un-hyang was a singer in the Unhasu Orchestra which played for Kim Jong-un's father.

"There were rumours that Kim Jong-un fell for her Western features," the sources said, and yet Ri was chosen over her – for her potential for propaganda resembling the first First Lady of North Korea. It is not clear whether Seo was executed along with many of the Orchestra in August, which included one of Kim’s former girlfriends.

The executed former girlfriend – Hyon Song-wol

A singer with the Unhasu Orchestra – as were both Kim’s wife Ri and Seo Un-hyang – Hyon Song-wol was arrested on August 17 this year and executed a few days later.

Hyon and Kim are believed to have been acquainted for about 10 years and to have struck up a relationship in this time. Kim’s father Kim Jong-il did not approve of this and Hyon married a military officer. There is a theory that Ri objected to the high profile of Hyon and this was a factor behind the execution.

The grandmother – Kim Jong-suk

Born on the 24th December 1919 – now a national holiday – a cult has developed around the grandmother of current leader Kim Jong-un.

Kim Jong-suk is touted as the hero of the anti-Japanese resistance and mother to North Korea.

It is likely current First Lady, Ri, was chosen for her resemblance to Kim Jong-suk and yet theories of her death in 1949 include that she died in childbirth when trying to deliver a baby alone, and that she was shot by her husband and bled to death.